Mr. Big News quickly pulled Jiji out of the cafeteria under Rayen's and Adrian's scrutiny. The kid also averted his gaze away from them as though he was afraid.
Straightening his back while chuckling dryly, Rayen understood their reactions. It was because of the incident during their first day here. When Rayen withheld the information about their possible disappearance, it caused someone's second death.
"They still blame you for that?" Adrian's brows were raised in annoyance. "That's the stupid participant's fault, not yours."
In Rayen's mind, although he thought that that participant with anger issues was partly at fault as well, it still couldn't erase what Rayen had done. It was understandable that those who witnessed such a scene and knew Rayen's involvement would be wary of him. On top of that, Adrian also said a few more words that almost escalated the situation back then.
Another buzz came from Rayen's phone, reminding them why they were going out of the cafeteria in the first place.
"Sigh... Let's go."
The two of them slowed their steps so that they wouldn't encounter the two who similarly escaped from people's curious glances as well. After all, Mr. Big News and Jiji were also participants whose auditions were aired during the first episode.
They were also memorable as one was a burly man that sang and danced confidently, and the other was a little kid resembling MJ while performing. So, compared to the others, they would certainly receive more attention.
Soon, Rayen and Adrian both arrived at the second floor, in front of the practice room, where they split ways.
Adrian entered first, disappearing through the doorway. It didn't seem like he had entered the dance studio at all, given how it was so silent from the outside.
Rayen did not immediately enter the studio after Adrian. When he reached for the door's handle, he heard a subtle noise coming from within, as though the silent studio earlier was just his hallucination.
The sound that Rayen heard was their song. From its originally mysterious intro, the rearrangement made the song creepier. The sirens and busy city noise were removed, leaving the piano solo to stand out more.
Hearing that, Rayen felt his heart jump in joy.
'It's already finished? That was fast!'
Rayen opened the door and saw four people dancing as Yeo Haru led them. Noticing someone at the door, the five people inside turned their heads toward Rayen.
Yeo Haru's eyes instantly gleamed and excitedly shared the news, "We've already finished the rearrangement! We're coming up with the choreography right now."
"Nice," Rayen responded with a smile.
'Hurry up and finalize it already!'
Rayen only had a little over 60 hours to finish his mission. He didn't even know if he could accomplish it. The deadline was so tight, it was as if it's deliberately screwing him over to send him to that penalty practice room!
"You're already late. Hurry and join us too."
Embarassed for his tardiness, Rayen closed the door as he scratched his head.
Ding!
Just then, his phone buzzed again.
'Oh, I forgot to turn it into silent mode.'
Just as Rayen raised his phone, the buzzing repeated, making the others frown in place. The ringing was so frequent that it was too eye-catching.
Rayen hurriedly opened the screen, panicking. He didn't feel glad because he was receiving too many points since it smelled so fishy. How could he even garner so much attention?
Even though he did dance terribly, it wasn't enough to gather this much reaction!
'What the hell is really going on!?'
Since Yeo Haru was just about to pull Rayen into formation before the commotion, he was beside him and could peek at Rayen's screen and read the words.
Gasping, Yeo Haru exclaimed, "You're getting so many Life Book points!"
"What?" Binh also became curious and went over to look. "Whoa!"
"How did you get points? Has the voting already started?"
Rayen shook his head. "I think it's because the first episode aired. It says I made an impression to people."
"...."
Not knowing how to respond, the five people inside the practice room all fell silent, their lips pursed. They remembered that Rayen had been the first audition participant, and his dancing performance was definitely "impressionable."
Until now, they still had no idea whether this person was really good or bad at dancing.
"Brother, your backflip was really impressive!" Yeo Haru praised to disperse the strange atmosphere.
Rayen's lips twitched upon hearing it. Without responding, he silenced his phone. He still couldn't tell if Yeo Haru genuinely believed what he had just said. Just as he was about to turn off his screen again, Binh noticed something else from the notifications Rayen had just dismissed.
"Brother, do you get notifications once you made an impression to 10,000 people?"
Rayen nodded in response.
"But why did you only get 100 points?"
This time, he could no longer answer. They also noticed this discrepancy, and the room suddenly turned gloomy when they understood it.
"Isn't this too much?" Renjiro finally said something. "Do we need to make an impression to a hundred million people just to collect 1 million points?"
Everyone sighed.
Minho broke the silence. "But Brother, you're amazing. How did you impress tens of thousands of people? You get so many points so frequently."
Rayen shrugged. "I also don't know."
"Shouldn't we try to look?" Binh suggested.
Nodding, Yeo Haru also agreed. "Right. I think we also need to know the audience's view. Let's take a break for now."
Liam was silent and paused the ongoing music. They gathered in a circle and opened the browser from Rayen's phone. They still hadn't been able to install any other app, so they could only access the internet through this.
Thinking for a moment, Rayen typed out the words "Idol:Revive Rayen" on the browser's search engine.
Just as it finished loading, from the first search result, a familiar red head entered their vision. The person with red hair was surrounded by smiling spiky cactuses as he held a bag of chips in his hand.
When Rayen saw it, he immediately covered the screen with his hands. The five people with him quickly exchanged glances, each with their own expression.
'No one saw it, right?'
Their expression said otherwise.
'Please tell me they didn't see it!'
Everyone told him the opposite of his wish when they grabbed their own phones to search.
And so, Rayen earned a new nickname within his team.